Innovations in Foreign Direct Investment Attraction

Case study: Dubai FDI

28

While the major national IPAs from United States, France and UK cited above have 

large teams and budgets to track FDI, Dubai FDI has been the first IPA in the world 

to publish real time FDI data utilizing innovative, cost effective techniques and in 

doing so promote Dubai more effectively to foreign investors.

Dubai FDI is the IPA for Dubai and is part of the Department of Economic Develop-

ment of the Government of Dubai. In 2015, Dubai FDI took the decision to system-

atically track FDI into Dubai with four key objectives:

1. To understand the role of FDI in the Dubai economy and, through the collection 

of FDI data, inform the investment promotion strategy of Dubai FDI;

27  

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/559536/UKTI_annual_report_and_accounts_2016.pdf.

28 See: 

https://www.dubaifdimonitor.com/;http://www.dubaifdi.gov.ae/English/DataCenter/Pages/StudiesAndResearch.aspx; and http://www.emirates247.com/news/gov-

ernment/dubai-launches-first-ever-city-fdi-monitor-2016-04-11-1.626807. 

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2. Promote Dubai more effectively to potential foreign investors through the launch 

of “Dubai FDI Monitor LIVE”, which is an online portal for real time FDI data on 

Dubai with GIS mapping tools (see 

www.dubaifdimonitor.com

); 

3. Create greater awareness among key stakeholders in Dubai of the importance of 

FDI, its impact on the Dubai economy, and raising the visibility of Dubai FDI; and

4. Directly engage with companies investing in Dubai to ensure their investments 

take place and to provide investment aftercare services as needed by investors. 

To implement the initiative, Dubai FDI created a public-private partnership to draw 

on the technology and expertise of private sector FDI specialists and to enable the 

project to be implemented cost effectively and within a short timeframe. Through the 

partnership, Dubai FDI systematically records daily FDI taking place in Dubai and 

measures its economic impact, including measuring the technology intensiveness of 

FDI attracted, a key indicator of economic development.

The project also provides resources to identify companies investing in Dubai, to re-

search and contact each company with a view to validating their investment plans 

and the support they may need from Dubai FDI, both pre-and post-investment. The 

FDI tracking is conducted in real time.

Dubai FDI expanded the tracking to also include M&A and New Forms of Invest-

ment as well as greenfield FDI, making Dubai FDI the only IPA in the world tracking 

systematically all types of FDI.